Monday, December 26, 2011

F-bombing Christmas

I dropped the f-bomb, twice, this Christmas.

But it was for a good reason. I rarely use that word, but when I do, you know it's for a worthwhile cause.

We had loaded up the kids after a fabulous Christmas Day at Jay's family. We stopped at kwik shop in Abilene for gas and I went in to get a drink for Jay. As I came out the door, I heard Katie and Maggie start screaming from the car. I felt that panic and started walked faster. Just as I rounded the back of the car, I heard Jay say "Go get your mom," saw him with Lainie, and realized she was having a seizure.

Damn. (see, no F-bomb yet.)

Jay and I got her out of the car, to the pavement, and I turned her when she vomited to clear her airway, grateful she stopped turning blue. I asked someone to start timing, asked someone to call 911, asked someone else to get my coat for her to lay on, and caressed her hair while she had a grand mal seizure. On Christmas. At 11:45 p.m. In the Kwik Shop parking lot.

The ambulance came and loaded her up, I hugged the girls and told them everything would be okay and I was proud of them, turned to Jay, hugged him, and dropped the first F-bomb of the night.

His exact response? "My thoughts exactly."

Grand mal only lasted 2 minutes, and she regained consciousness at about 12:10, at the ER in Abilene. Blood tests, fever 102.6, urine test...and a call to the neurologist = 100 mg of zonegran and restart that drug.

Second f-bomb.

I'm so sad, so mad. I don't want her drugged again. She's just now happy and calm and learning so much! Isn't there another option?

But we can't let her go through those seizures. Her pulse was racing, even an hour after the seizure, her little muscles twitching all over. On the way home, while she was still awake, she kept going through the alphabet in sign language and air-writing, like she too was making sure it was all still there, proving she hadn't lost anything with this one.

Do you think she knows?

And where do we go from here?

We'll find out later this week. Will call her doc in the morning. In the meantime, she's sleeping in our room, all of us are back home tonight and Lainie's on around the clock ibuprofen until fever is stopped or we figure out the cause.

Oh, and now it's Jay's birthday. What a gift.

Actually, it is. We are home. She's stopped seizing. We'll worry about the rest tomorrow.